


The Hard Truth

by Wix



Category: Marvel, Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Civil War Team Iron Man, Consequences, Gen, Not Canon Compliant, Post-Captain America: Civil War (Movie), not team Cap friendly
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-14
Updated: 2019-11-14
Packaged: 2021-01-30 19:02:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,207
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21433168
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Wix/pseuds/Wix
Summary: In the end, Steve learns that consequences come for everyone and no one is immune to them.
Relationships: Steve Rogers & Tony Stark, Tony Stark & Avengers Team
Comments: 128
Kudos: 4034
Collections: Best Team Iron Man, Cold Consequences, Post-Civil War Media Fallout (Team Iron Man), Team Decency (Salty Team Iron Man Fics), Tony Cinematic Universe One-Shots, Tony Stark Defense Squad I, Tony Stark deserves more





	The Hard Truth

**Author's Note:**

> S'up! Here's a short I just typed up and I hope you all enjoy it. As much as I love a Tony who just doesn't engage, I also love a Tony who gets to lay it all out there.   
So here you go!

The word gets out that the ‘Rogue’ Avengers are hiding out in Wakanda by the third day. It’s a lot faster than Steve or the rest of the group thought it might happen, after all T’Challa had been rather certain that he could hide them out in his country for a bit until they determined a plan of attack for how to handle everything that had transpired. It should have been simple, since Wakanda was apart from the rest of the world, without a lot of the oversight that others had to deal with on a day to day basis. Unfortunately, it hadn’t ended up playing out that way. It seemed that when the entire world was out to get you and wanted your blood that they could be rather talented at locating where you were hiding.

Especially if one of those people was Tony Stark.

Sam’s the one who brings Steve the news. He’s the one who comes in while Steve watches the frozen Winter Soldier be unresponsive to all of his comments and tells him that Tony’s revealed to the world at large where they are from his hospital bed. The information Steve learns has started a witch hunt. Steve’s finds himself concerned with how fast the world turns against Wakanda and T’Challa in the wake of the information leak. News bulletins showed story after story of protests and demands being shouted from around the globe, demonizing a nation and it’s king for harboring fugitives within its walls. Clint tells him how this is worse than usual because so many people have wanted a foothold or something to hold over Wakanda for so many years and now Tony’s gone and handed it to them on a silver platter.

Sometimes Steve wishes that Tony had kept this vendetta that he had against Steve between the two of them and hadn’t felt the need to bring other innocent people in on it. _‘If wishes were fishes’ _Tony used to say and somehow that sounds apt for the world Steve finds himself living in.

Steve sits down at one point and pens out a letter to Tony that he only half feels. He wants to give the brunet something, some explanation for the turn that everything took but it ends up being a thousand times harder than he ever expected. He writes dozens of drafts and throws out each and every single one. Natasha shows up in Wakanda a few days in having been banished from Tony’s side in a fit of rage and bruised ego and she looks over his attempts with a critical eye.

_“I don’t think you should send this.” She tells him and Steve asks why. “Because the only thing Tony wants to hear is ‘I’m sorry’, and that’s the only thing you don’t say.” _

Does he feel sorry? Of course he does. He feels so sorry that everything has spiraled out of control. He feels sorry that their family has been hurt and temporarily ripped apart. He feels sorry that T’Chaka died and that Zemo’s family was killed and that Bucky’s gone back into Cryo. He’s sorry that Tony got hurt…but he doesn’t feel sorry for what he did. He did what he had to do, as regrettable as it was in the end. He did what he knew was right, and sometimes knowing that you did the right thing even when everything goes wrong still ends up being worth it in the end.

He’s sorry that Tony’s in pain, he knows that it will pass once Tony’s able to look at it objectively; but he wouldn’t change a single thing he did. If given a second chance he’d do it all the same. That’s the thing about doing the right thing, no regrets afterwards. He wishes that Tony knew that kind of peace.

_“I think this one is actually worse.” Natasha says to his final draft and he looks at her surprised. “At least in the others you were upfront about the fact that you weren’t sorry. In this one you’re basically telling him to get over it because you had your reasons. You’re justifying, you’re still not apologizing.”_

Steve doesn’t see what she’s saying. The letter is a reflection of everything that happened and an explanation that Steve feels Tony deserves. He ends up sending it anyways and he sleeps well that night with the phone next to his bed. It’s a start, the start of reconciliation. Steve’s opened the door and now all that’s left is for Tony to walk through it.

T’Challa makes them leave a few days later, caving to social and political pressure. He helps them sneak out, but he doesn’t do anything more than that. He does give his word that Bucky will be protected so Steve figures there’s nothing more that he can ask from the new king.

Being on the run without someone like Fury or Tony backing them is a thousand times less glamourous than he thinks people realize it is. It’s a lot of shuffling about with your head down and eating cheap gas station foods from sketchy stations that might not have a decent security system layout. It’s worrying each time a car pulls up outside the creepy motels that the cops have found you and that you’re about to have to fight to the death to defend yourself. It’s the boredom from having nothing to do and only four channels that barely come in on the old thick television screens. It’s lukewarm showers at best and constantly being on the move. It’s backwoods places and areas where civilization hasn’t really had a chance to infest.

It’s Tony still showing up two weeks later in spite of all of that.

He’s sitting on the edge of the bed stiffly with his arm in a cast and the bruising on his face has shifted into that sickly yellow green healing phase when they come in. It’s chaos for a few moments, Clint tries to pull out his bow only to have it snap in his hands and give him a horrible shock that takes him down – it’s Stark tech, Tony’s probably done something to it – and the air is filled with a soft hum that reveals itself as a weapon when tiny machines latch themselves onto Wanda and Natasha, taking them both out in separate ways. Wanda claws at a collar that seems to have built itself from nothing around her neck, and Natasha seizes like she’s been hit by one of her own widow bites and hits the floor. Through it all, Tony doesn’t move.

“Wilson. You can go.” Tony says calmly and Sam gives him a look.

“Why?”

“You were the only one concerned about Rhodey.” Tony looks Steve in the eye. “He’s paralyzed by the way. It’s permanent.”

“I didn’t do that Tony.” Steve tells him and Tony just closes his eyes with a small nod and a soft hum.

“If you leave out that door right now Wilson without fighting you’ll be taken into custody. I give you my word that what you’ll get will be a thousand times lighter than what you deserve. A kindness deserves another kindness I figure.” He looks at him. “Or you can fight, and you will regret it. I’m not pulling punches a second time.”

Steve watches Sam think about it before the other man turns and looks at Steve with a look of remorse.

“I’m sorry Steve…” He says and Steve nods.

“I get it. Take care of yourself.” Steve replies and Sam gives him a grateful smile before he steps outside and puts his hands up as he goes. Steve can hear shuffling outside after the door closes, but nothing that sounds too violent or like anyone is struggling so he doesn’t go see what’s happened. Plus, whatever is out there is what Sam chose. “Tony…” Steve says and Tony’s eyes snap to him and they’re cold.

“No.” He says and something about the word snaps Steve’s mouth closed. “No, you’re always talking. It’s my turn.” He reaches into his pocket and pulls out the letter. “I don’t know what I expected when I received this. Is it sad to say that I wasn’t even surprised at what I got when I read it? Of course the ‘great Steve Rogers’ could never admit that he was a lying asshole who uses and abuses others for his own gain.” Steve goes to say something to defend himself against that but the look Tony gives him dries the words up in his throat. “You told me to call you if I needed something, but I decided that what I needed was to look you in the eye as I said this: you are _poison_.” Tony hisses the word with so much feeling and hurt and rage that it almost makes Steve’s knees buckle. “From the moment you were revived you have been nothing but trouble. You’ve paraded around, puffed up on your own superiority and your overall lack of knowledge and awareness. You’ve burned down everything you’ve touched and no matter how many fires I’ve been there to extinguish you’ve gone on to make more. You seem to believe that a single man’s opinion is the same as some kind of divine edict and you blithely ignore reality or anything that tells you otherwise. You are the walking embodiment of everything that you claim to fight and somehow you seem wholly unware of that fact. You spit on and destroy anything that doesn’t fit into your ‘approved’ version of the world and somehow with each step you take you leave more and more bodies and destruction in your wake and yet somehow you still look in the mirror and see a hero.” Tony shakes his head. “Good becomes great and bad becomes worse. Isn’t that what Erskine said? Unfortunately for all of us, you were always the second half of that equation.” The words burn and Steve tenses a bit as Tony pushes himself to his feet unsteadily.

“Tony…”

“Steven Grant Rogers, you and your associates are under arrest for murder, terrorism and treason.” Tony says and the door opens to reveal people dressed in outfits similar to S.W.A.T. “You will go with these people without incident or I will be given full authorization to use deadly force.” He looks at Steve. “And if you go that way then this will be your grave. I will not hold back a second time.”

“You didn’t hold back last time.” Steve reminds him and Tony’s smile is amused.

“You’re still breathing aren’t you? Clearly I did.”

“What happens to us if we go?” Steve questions and Tony shrugs.

“If you go peacefully? You and Wanda will mostly likely be stripped of your powers – before you ask, yes I do know how to do that and I have already agreed to do so if that is what the courts decide; and Natasha and Clint will be given up to the courts and tried as spies and murderers.” He tugs at the strap on his shoulder. “If you fight, you die here and everything still plays out the same. I’d rather that eventuality not happen though.”

“Then why are you doing this?” Steve asks, seeing an opening and Tony snorts softly.

“You misunderstand. As satisfying as killing you would be, that robs hundreds of people of their justice. I don’t want to do that to them. They’re already getting the Winter Soldier; it only seems fair that they get you too.”

“What?” Steve steps forward. “There’s no way you have Bucky.”

“He’s already been released into the Council’s custody.” Tony says. “If you want to see him, you’ll come peacefully.”

“Tony, he’s innocent.”

“No, he’s not.” Tony says. “But he is at the same time. It’s a confusing precedent. Either way, his hands were the weapon by which so many were harmed or died. The information that he could give could give so much closure and end so much pain. He gets this, I don’t understand why you don’t.”

“They’ll crucify him for things he didn’t do!”

“Not likely.” Tony says. “With the arrival of Loki and Wanda over there, people have warmed up to the idea of actual mind control. Not to mention we’ve found one of those ‘rewrite chairs’. I have no doubts that his time as the Winter Soldier will be forgiven. It’s his time afterwards that’s in question. When he refused arrest and assaulted police and destroyed an airport and ran with stolen government information given to you by the recently incarcerated Sharon Carter.”

“Sharon’s been arrested?”

“Yes. I guess that stealing government documents and giving them to an outside third party therefore creating a massive international incident is frowned upon. Who would have thought?”

“She didn’t do anything wrong!”

“She did in fact, do something wrong. You just refuse to see it that way because it helped _you_.” Tony says with a calm, almost bored tone. “But news flash Rogers. When you’re breaking the law and when you’re the one ‘in the wrong’, no one gives a damn how you think you can justify it, and those who did it with you are just as culpable.”

“…you need us.” Natasha manages to stutter out from the floor and Tony turns to her.

“Who? You in particular or the Avengers? Because in reference to you my dear, I can point to that doorway where several ex-SHIELD agents with resumes just as impressive, if not more in some cases, as yours await. Did you mean Clint? Because a sharpshooter is a breeze to find or even just to train and the whole ‘bow and arrow’ thing was insulting from the get-go. Perhaps you mean Wanda? That might have been an argument but you’d be surprised what I’ve been researching and have found over the last few years and that’s this: powered people are popping up everywhere as you well know. No one is going to feel the loss of one woman with no control and a history of violence no matter how pretty she pouts. Nor will they feel it for someone who can throw a Frisbee really well and can punch people. I’ve actually found five others who can do the same thing, four in New York alone along with a man who took Parkour to a whole new level.” Tony looks down at her. “So it looks like the world is in fact going to put you in a cell. It’s going to put all of you in a cell and then it’s going to throw away the key and forget you because you were never as impressive or as invaluable as you thought you were. You overplayed your hand Natasha, and now it’s come time to pay the price for it.”

“Tony, you don’t need to do this.” Steve tries to say and Tony gives him an amused look.

“_I _don’t need to do this? You’re mistaken Rogers, as per usual. _I_ didn’t do this. _You_ did.” Tony looks him in the eye. He seems to have a need to do that lately, something Steve’s noticed.

“You can stop this Tony.”

“Now that might be true, but that’s what happens when you betray the person who could have helped you. It tends to make them unlikely to do it.” Tony says with an almost flippant air that Steve doesn’t think this moment deserves. “And I’m well past coming in and cleaning up your messes Rogers.” Steve feels the soldiers come in and tug his arms behind his back. He thinks about fighting back but Tony’s made it clear what the real price here is if he does. Steve doesn’t see the suit so if Tony thinks he could take them then that means only one thing – whatever he did to Nat, Wanda and Clint could kill them and he’s holding them hostage.

The ex-SHIELD agents read him his ‘rights’ in a rather aggressive sort of way, hate practically pouring from their mouths as they do and the cuffs they put around him are Stark Tech, he can tell by how he immediately feels weaker. Drugs of some sort? Who knows, but whatever it is, Tony’s outdone himself. He usually does.

The court cases are long and complex. Dozens of witnesses and accusers come forth, ex-SHIELD agents who were burned by Steve’s decisions, who lost friends or family or were tortured themselves until they either got away or were rescued by Tony Stark. Families from the bridge incident in Germany show up, tearful individuals talking about fear and horror as they stayed trapped in their cars with their families under so much rubble wondering if they were going to watch their kids suffocate and die while waiting to be saved. The spouses of the arrest team in Germany arrive as well, talking about the stress that the massive damages done to their significant others put on their families. One of the officers arrives to talk about it himself, of how his collarbone and chest were horribly damaged by Steve’s shield and how the medical needs that he’ll go through the rest of his life with are irreversible.

Tony arrives in the middle, not wishing to be first and not wishing to be last. He talks of Steve’s knowledge of the Winter Soldier and his previous missions. He talks about Howard and Maria and how Steve shielded their murderer from justice. He talks about financial fraud and lies and he does it with a face that tries to hide the pain but it still slips through the cracks. He talks about a hero’s fall from grace and the world listens.

“You’re going to regret this Tony.” Steve whispers to him as they strap him down to the medical table and Tony comes up alongside of him to administer the anti-serum. “You’re going to need me.”

“I’m curious how you still buy into that.” Tony says, going about the prep for taking away Steve’s gifts. “What’s so special about you Steve that I couldn’t find anywhere else? Your strength? I can find that, and if I can’t I can make it. Your charisma? It’s worn thin. Your ‘battle prowess’? Your mission plans of ‘keep it contained and hit it hard’? Honestly, I can’t see a single thing that one might miss.” Tony pauses. “You know what, actually there is something I think the world will miss. The loss of belief. You were an image of so much, and so much hope was tied into you. I think the world will miss that. A time when we believed that you were a gallant knight who had come to save us. Now we know better.”

“Don’t do this Tony.” Steve pleads as Tony puts the liquid into the IV. “Please.”

“It’s already done.” Tony says, pulling away. “I would have rather this never came to pass, but you left us little choice in the matter. This is what happens Steve. When you abuse your power and think that you’re untouchable. The world eventually proves otherwise.” Tony inclines his head to him. “Goodbye Rogers. Enjoy prison.” He says before he turns and walks out the door, and Steve never sees him again.

**Author's Note:**

> No comments of a critiquing or negative nature. Thank you for understanding.


End file.
